When is a golf course not a golf course

When was the last time a Major tournament was held without any bunkers on it????.

I was always led to believe that good shots were rewarded and poor shots punished, we have have a golf course with bunkers that would punish any wayward shots, but the PGA has decided that none of the bunkers are bunkers, they are waste areas so, no punishment, sorry, but for me it has just become a joke.

Think the PGA should put their hand up and say we cocked this tournament up by not leaving the bunkers in play, and make sure they do not make any more stupid decisions.

What does everyone else think?.

I haven't seen a great deal of this tournament (due to Olympic fever), but why did the PGA decide that the bunkers would not be in play as a hazard?

Mary no idea, but such a stupid decision, Rory is going well though.

Not sure that I agree with you there OP, the golf course was still a golf course and is one of the hardest ones on tour. Being able to ground your club in the bunkers obviously makes life easier, but wayward shots were still punished by landing in them.

What a great performance by Rory though, got to applaud that.

There were only 20 players under par, it was still a tough track. I suspect they were trying to avoid any confusion about what was waste and what was sand and made an all or nothing decision. It would have been a brutal test if it was all deemed sand, part of me wishes it was... just to see how high the scoring would have gotten.

Does the ability to ground the club really make that much of a difference?

I would say yes, because you have the opportunity to test the surface of the sand, which gives you a better idea of how the club will react when playing the shot

I can see that much BCM - but it's still a "hazard" after all (even if not denoted as such). That may make a slight difference, but the shot still has to be executed. Most of the "sandy areas" looked to be almost as well maintained as perfectly manicured bunkers anyway so testing the surface shouldn't really make that much difference

I think they could have very easily marked out the waste areas, and left all the other bunkers in play, and it did make the course play easier than it was designed to be played.

Rory played very good golf to win it, but for me the comp was spoiled by not having bunkers on the course.

oldparwin wrote:When was the last time a Major tournament was held without any bunkers on it????.

I was always led to believe that good shots were rewarded and poor shots punished, we have have a golf course with bunkers that would punish any wayward shots, but the PGA has decided that none of the bunkers are bunkers, they are waste areas so, no punishment, sorry, but for me it has just become a joke.

Think the PGA should put their hand up and say we cocked this tournament up by not leaving the bunkers in play, and make sure they do not make any more stupid decisions.

What does everyone else think?.

Sorry completely disagree with this. I'll hold my hands up and say I watched very little of the tournament, but from what I saw, the bunkers WERE in play. The waste areas / bunkers were a punishment... not as severe as say Lytham for example, but still better to be in fairway than in a bunker.

From what I saw of the tournament it looked like the players did act as if they were still a hazard and there was no grounding of the club. Maybe they didn't feel comfortable playing the shots from the sand in a different manner.

Ray
I watched it all live, and they were all taking practice swings, to check the depth of the sand, and then being able to ground their clubs made it so easy, that I would say that it was unfair on how the golf course was designed to be played and spoiled it for me.

oldparwin wrote:Ray
I watched it all live, and they were all taking practice swings, to check the depth of the sand, and then being able to ground their clubs made it so easy, that I would say that it was unfair on how the golf course was designed to be played and spoiled it for me.

Personally, I would say being able to take a practice swing does help to guage the depth and consistency of the sand (not sure grounding your club makes much difference), but it is still a hazard and still harder to execute than being on the fairway.

Anyway, why weren't you watching the Olympics?

I like and did enjoy the Athletics, but not really an Olympic fan, and as for the ceremonial part of it, not for me, just like the Ryder Cup (The ceremonial part) not worth watching.